As the media horde surrounded an up-and-coming NHL player named Jake Gardiner on Wednesday morning, a Maple Leaf headed in a different direction stopped for a moment to take in the scene.

“Jake Gardiner is free,” said Mike Komisarek with a smile.

A little while later it would become news in that Komisarek was on the verge of being granted some self-constructed freedom of his own. Komisarek, the $4.5-million-a-season defenceman who hadn’t been able to crack the Toronto lineup since Groundhog Day, had agreed to waive his hard-earned no-movement clause. He was put on waivers after pre-agreeing to report to the AHL Marlies once he clears.

Once a first-round pick, once an all-star, Komisarek is 31 years old and struggling through a career low point. But he’s a hockey player who needs to play, no matter the league.

Gardiner is also a former first-round pick, and though he has not yet been named an all-star he appears to have the makings of a perennial one.

Before Tuesday, mind you, when it was revealed he’d be called up from the Marlies to the Leafs after a lengthy recovery from a concussion, he’d been grinding through his young pro career’s hardest moments. He was a 22-year-old hockey player of the mind that the league mattered, and that he was no longer using his time productively in the AHL.

The early returns suggest he was right. Playing in his first NHL game since Jan. 24, Gardiner fit in seamlessly, played more than 19 solid minutes, moved the puck beautifully, jumped into the rush effectively. He even hit someone occasionally.

It was tough to say, mind you, whether there was an obvious correlation between Gardiner’s presence and a much-needed 4-2 Toronto victory that halted a five-game losing streak and momentarily calmed the panic-laden discourse in Leafland. Still, it was the second time in two games in which the Leafs had welcomed back a major talent; Joffrey Lupul racked up a goal and an assist to give him points in the pair of games since his return from a 25-game absence with a fractured forearm. Talent wins in pro sports, and suddenly the Leafs have more.

“When you have two elite players coming in like Lupes and Gardiner, with their ability, it’s a boost and you get better,” goaltender James Reimer said.

“Is Jake Gardiner going to be the saviour?” Carlyle had said before the game. “That’s not what we’re saying as a coaching staff or as an organization.”

After it was over, the coach offered a mixed review.

“I think he was very visible in the game, you noticed him skating, you noticed him up on the rush,” Carlyle said.

Still, Carlyle had his quibbles, including Gardiner’s work on a controlled breakout in which the youngster found himself in the wrong corner and a 2-on 1 rush with defence partner John-Michael Liles that Carlyle called “the kind of thing that . . . can give the coach a little shiver.”

Nobody was mistaking Gardiner, who made his NHL return on Bobby Orr’s 65th birthday, as a young version of the greatest defenceman who ever lived, just as no one was mistaking the Maple Leafs for a team with everything figured out. Stiffer tests are in the offing, including a game at Buffalo on Thursday night and a home-and-home series with the Bruins that begins Saturday at the Air Canada Centre and concludes Monday in Boston.

Still, the Leafs deserve a nod for facing a Lightning team that had won three of its previous four and putting them into the ground by scoring four unanswered goals before the game was 28 minutes old, this while holding noted Leaf killer Steven Stamkos to one shot and zero points.

The evening wasn’t all rosy. Lupul’s shoulder to the head of Victor Hedman drew him a two-minute penalty for head contact but could conceivably draw the ire of NHL player-safety czar Brendan Shanahan. Certainly the Leafs don’t need to be without him during a theoretical suspension, this just two games back into his return from a 25-game absence with a broken forearm.

“I didn’t realize I got him in the head,” Lupul said. “I’ve got see the replay, but my no means did I go after and try and hit him in the head. ... I wasn’t even over there to hit him. He kind of came back toward the middle at the last second. It’s unfortunate.”

For Komisarek, the decision to pave the way for a trip to the minors couldn’t have been an easy one. But Leafs GM Dave Nonis said Komisarek recognized that, if his salary makes him an unattractive acquisition, so does the fact he hasn’t played regularly all season.

“A lot of players wouldn’t think that way. They wouldn’t think that’s the right thing to do,” Nonis told reporters. “You have to give him a lot of credit for how he approached it.”

Credit is due, indeed, to any real pro who chooses to play over easier ways to collect guaranteed pay. As Gardiner prepared to take a turn in the spotlight, Komisarek smiled and laughed a little at the spectacle. He looked happy for the kid, and not a bit particularly sad for himself.

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